Easter!

Today was a good day, and not just because my class watched a movie pretty much the whole morning. 

We got more involved in the story of Elisha in religion, dug deeper into the rising action of our read-aloud book, found a good stopping place without any arguing from my students, comfortably watched Ratatouille while I corrected papers/watched/emailed. Three bean bags needed sewing, so I fixed them in between lunch and recess.

The 7-8th graders were a little crazy, but we finished the geography lesson I wanted to, played tone chimes, and did a Junior Achievement lesson. (The 5-6th graders did PE). The 5-6th graders and I had a great Minnesota history lesson connecting WWI, WWII, and technological advances in the 1920s and 30s. 

I heard back from BLC saying I officially get a student teacher at the end of April. They have one other student who needs a place, and were wondering if there was another teacher at our school who would host. First I had to clear it with Mr. E. He was a little hesitant, but ended up saying if another teacher wanted to do it, we could. Mrs. L said no, she didn't have enough time for science/social in the schedule this year to make it worth the while. Mr. D said yes, his kids are getting tired of hearing him talk all the time, plus he could possibly get some new ideas from the student teacher. So, Mr. E gave the official yes on a second student teacher. Woohoo!

Short Week

Both my students and I are glad there are only two days of school this week. 

My brain was very laggy today, the weather was crazy (75 degrees and windy! tomorrow will be 40 degrees), and there's no spelling/handwriting/memory work this week since it's so short. That combination made it very easy to convince me to do extra read-aloud today. I mean, we did get to a really good part in our book... and even with the read-aloud we accomplished 95% of what I wanted to today.

My kids, normally so calm and quiet, were off the walls today. I blame it on the weather. Even the typically steady kids were getting in their classmates' faces and goofing off. Four square at recess was even stranger... again, it's a good thing it's a short week.

Last week I had an email from Bethany asking if I'd like to host a student teacher for three weeks at the end of April. Science class. Right away I asked Mr. E if I could. He said he had to sleep on it and I should ask some of the parents what they thought about having an outsider come into the school. The good news is, this student has been vaccinated, which lets the concerned folk rest easier. So, at the end of the poll, all involved said yes! I'll have a student teacher at the end of April! Woohoo! The only thing I'm bummed about is if she'll want to teach 7-8th science; what we're learning right now is my favorite thing to teach (body systems). Maybe I'll be selfish and just have her do 5-6th science... 

Home Ec Class

Mr. E loves to grill. He's been grilling for almost 365 days in a row. Today, he taught the 7th graders 'home ec' by having them grill 'Dan dogs' on his grill (hotdogs spiral cut, wrapped in cheese, then wrapped in dough). My class got to sample the results. They were delicious. Their class also deep fried cheese curds and grilled banana boats (bananas in the peel, chocolate chips, and marshmallows). We got to sample the curds but not the bananas. 

Mr. E wanted to have plenty of time to grill, so we flipflopped our class to the morning. That made today's schedule a little wonky, but it worked out well. Sometimes it's fun to mix things up. 

Religion class was on the prophets of Baal and Elijah, always an interesting story. We started our new read-aloud book today, All Four Stars. I didn't have enough heavy-duty plates to start our next art project, so we did both science and social studies today.

Perhaps the most exciting thing from today was the reply to our author letter! My class loved Coyote Sunrise and wanted to write a letter to the author saying what they love about his books, so we did. A lot of them had personal favorite parts they wanted to share, so I had each of them send me what they wanted to say and I compiled it all in one letter. Then I sent it off to Dan via his website and he wrote back right away! Here's his response:

Hello Ms. Heintz, Ridley, Noah, Alex, Arya, Chloe, and Anna! 
Thank you so much for such a lovely, thoughtful email. I'm so glad that you enjoyed Coyote's and Mark's stories, and I really appreciate all your kind words. I can tell you're great readers (and have a great teacher!)! Your email totally made my day. 
Thanks again, so very much. I hope you find lots more books you love just as much - or even more than! - mine!

Dan Gemeinhart

8:15- Brain Turns On

My kids have a lot to do this week before Friday. One of my early-arrival kids was wandering around the classroom at about 8:05am when one of his classmates asked, "Why don't you work on your math?" 

His reply, "My brain doesn't turn on until 8:15. I gotta let it wake up first; then I can work on my math." This morning he waited until 8:17, then got started.

My brain was a little sluggish when I woke up too. I was super productive after I got home yesterday and cleaned/sorted/recycled most of my apartment. Except, I kept getting distracted with more cleaning things to do and went to bed much later than I should have. Oops. My goal is to go to bed on time tonight. We'll see what happens. 

Even with a slightly sluggish teacher, we still accomplished a lot today. We finished our latest read-aloud book, did a science lab (testing how much work fruit can do via slinky), and began a new social studies project. The project was my students' idea; they wanted to make another social studies related powerpoint. 

The next big topic coming up is WWII, which they already know some things about from a few of our read-aloud books. So, yesterday I came up with guidelines for them to learn about other countries' involvement in WWII. Our focus in class will be on the US and Great Britain (and just a sprinkling of other countries). Things they need to find out: how the country got involved in the fight, when, why, who major players are, what life was like on the homefront (that one might be tricky...), did fighting take place in their country or did they go somewhere else to fight?

I had just wanted them to look over the plan I had come up with to see if they wanted to add anything to the project, but they were excited about it and wanted to start right away. Might as well capitalize on the enthusiasm! We drew sticks for partners and they chose their countries: Germany, Soviet Union, and the Pacific Islands. Should be interesting projects!

Class with the 7-8th graders was interesting too. One of the 7th graders had eye surgery today, so she was not in class. The 8th graders all had to quarantine starting Tuesday afternoon (and confirmation is postponed) due to exposure to covid during questioning. That left four 7th graders to teach in person (the 8th graders tuned in via Teams). One positive thing is that we only have two days of school next week, so the 8th graders won't miss much. They are cleared to come back after Easter vacation.

Spelling Recording

I'm a bit irritated with myself. I did dishes before school this morning instead of pre-recording the 7th grade spelling test for this week. I record all the spelling tests so students can take them when they're ready and don't have to wait for me. It also drastically cuts down on the amount of chitter chattering during tests; I'm sold and will never go back to the old way. Most of the tests are recorded, but a group of 7th grade students is in the advanced book, so I'm recording each week as we go.

One of the 7th graders is having eye surgery tomorrow, so I knew I had to record the test yesterday or this morning so she could take her test before leaving. I didn't feel like doing it last night and thought, "Oh, I'll have plenty of time in the morning." Nope. Should've known better.

This morning as I was doing my dishes, I thought, "Oh, I'll have just enough time when I get to school. I can still get it done before students come." Guess what. They came early today. 😐 

It was nice and quiet when I got to school, so first thing I began recording the test knowing I didn't have much time. I only made it halfway through when my first student arrived 10 minutes before she usually does. The school door was locked, so she rang the doorbell, which came through my desk phone even though I took the phone off the hook to specifically combat that exact scenario. Then, Mr. E poked his head in the door to tell me my student was here and did I want him to take her temperature or would I? At that point I decided to scrap the test and start over.

The trouble was, where to record in a school with no quiet places??? Solution: the gym shed. It's located on the far side of the gym, away from people, and no one would go in there or try to talk to me while I was recording. It's non-insulated and no lights (except for natural light streaming in from the outside door window), but a slight chill and dim light is a small price to pay for silence. There was even a chair to sit on!

The door locks from behind and I didn't want to prop the door open (just in case curious people would poke their heads in to see why the door was open), so I took a bungee cord and hung it from the latch so the door would mostly close but not lock me in. 

Mr. E likes to walk around the gym while waiting for students to arrive, so I spoke a little quieter when I heard his sneakers squeaking closer, just in case he would hear me. The first bus arrived while I recorded, and I heard the students clamoring while they waited for their temperature beep. Hopefully it didn't end up on the recording. At that point, I decided if it did they would just have to deal with it! None of the students said anything, so it must've been fine! 

The test took less than five minutes to record. Such a lot of hassle for a little thing. Mrs. L saw me emerge from the shed and gave me a weird look. "Just felt like hanging out in the shed this morning? she teased. She laughed when I explained the whole situation. 

Let's hope this is the last time I have to do that!

John Deere green

One of the 7th graders had a surprise for me when I walked into class this afternoon. The whole row of computers along the far wall were up and running with photos of large John Deere equipment as the background on each one. My first thought was, "Wow, it's strange all the computers are going." My second was, "That's a lot of John Deere..." 

A classmate of his shared that this student has been running around wiggling the mice all day to keep the computers from going to sleep, just so I would have a bright green view when I walked through the door. Oh these kids!

In other news, today was the last day of the 3rd quarter. Only one more to go! I surprisingly already have my report cards finished!!! Earlier this week I put all the assignments in the gradebook and I've stayed on top of correcting the rest of this week. I corrected spelling tests during the 7-8th study hall this afternoon and added those few assignments to the gradebook after school. Voila! That leaves me free and clear for the long weekend!

Homework Contract

 This happened today:

Earlier this year, my kids asked if they could skip one week of handwriting and do one of the later ones in the book since our book goes through week 32 and we only have 30 weeks we need to do handwriting. I didn't think it was a big deal, so I said sure. 

Today they discussed and realized that week 27 has a lot of long words. Week 31 has short words. So they made a plan to skip the long word week. I forgot that I had said they could trade a week around, and I told them they needed to get it in writing since I'm getting forgetful in my old age. (Then they made a joke about me being old/not old at 30). One 6th grader took it upon herself to type up a contract and have her classmates and me sign it. Didn't she do a great job? Even with getting her classmates to sign!

Snowman

Perfect snowman building weather today. I forced my students to go outside for afternoon recess. They put up a fuss because they didn't want to get wet or dirty. In protest, they didn't wear their winter gear and stayed on the blacktop. I built a snowman by myself, until one 5th grader joined me. We set him on the picnic table bench and gave him a couple friends too. The rest of the class got bored playing tag and eventually moved to the snow. They raced each other or walked around, swung on the swings. 

The 7-8th graders learned about the skeletal system today. I showed them my sheep bones and some other bones I found this weekend (totally dry bones with nothing on them... pretty sure they're from a fox): ribs, skull, hips, arm/leg bones, vertebrates... Some of the bones from the sheep are broken so you can see the spongy vs compact bone. They were super into it. But of course, bones are just kind of cool in general. They're not something you see every day!

Habitat update: my USDA loan application got sent up the chain today! Now I wait to hear what they decide. I do know they'll need my 2020 taxes when those are finished. Hopefully they won't need any more documentation besides that and the plethora of paperwork I already sent.

Snow Day

Yesterday was a snow day. We got at least eight inches of snow, all full of moisture and heavy. The snow pile is built up again... that will throw off everyone's predictions for when the pile will totally be gone! The rest of the week is supposed to be warm, so who knows.

A pretty typical day at school. It was a bit crunched since we didn't have class yesterday. We finished our read-aloud book, started a writing assignment in English, worked on a finding the books of the bible challenge, and had recess/MN history. 

And found a dead possum next to my classroom steps outside!!! A parent discovered it first. I thought it was an old hose. Nope it was the tail of a possum. Or some small, black rodent with a thick tail. There's been a critter living under my classroom since this summer. My guess is it wasn't able to get back in it's den with all the snow/slush/ice in the way. Gross.

Smores

Today was a much calmer day, student attitude-wise. Before school was a little crunched writing up missing assignments for the 7-8th graders, listening to memory work, tuning in our Friday homeschoolers for religion, and getting 5-6th graders working on spelling fixes. Still, we fit everything in!

After religion we made microwave smores as our school prize for meeting our page goal for I Love to Read Month! We read over 33,000 pages (our goal was 30,000). Stay tuned for more stats on which classroom read the most. A microwave and the smore supplies were on a cart that we wheeled to each class at their designated time. My class was the first, so when they saw the piles of chocolate and marshmallows, they immediately thought they'd get to eat a whole bunch. Nope, just one. 

We found that 3 squares of chocolate, one marshmallow, and 15 seconds was the perfect amount of time to zap them. So good. I've made many a microwave smore in my day, but some kids tried them for the first time today. One girl was so sold on them she said, "This summer, when my family is making smores around the campfire, I'm gonna say 'see ya!' and go in the house and make mine in the microwave. They're so much better this way!" 

I tend to agree. The chocolate is melty, the marshmallow melted all the way through. Perfection. 

We only got a little sticky... My chocolate squirted out the sides and accidentally dripped a bit on my mask (dangling from one ear) and the floor (I cleaned it up!). Still, definitely a high point of the day! Other classes agreed. The preschoolers dubbed today "the best day of school ever!" and making smores was the funnest thing they've ever done. 

Our read-aloud book is chugging along. We're at that horrible part in a book where we're getting close to the climax, the book is too good to stop reading, but there's no way we can finish it in a day. My class crammed in as much time as we could (politely planning this time instead of demanding), and we ended in a place satisfactory for all. 

We read one of the tear-jerker sections. I held it together pretty well, just had to wipe my eyes a few times... My kids said, "You know it's a good book when it makes Miss H cry." They wanted to know if we were past all the sad parts of the book or if I'll cry again. They try to make predictions about what's going to happen after knowing if I'll cry. I'm pretty sure I'm going to bawl on Monday. I told them I'm probably going to cry again, so they immediately jumped to the conclusion that someone dies or gets hurt. 

"Something bad has to happen. Like really bad. It has to be sad, otherwise why would Miss H cry?"
"But what if Miss H was just emotional crying? And not sad crying?"

"What? Miss H never emotional cries."

"Are you kidding?! That's why she was crying ten minutes ago!"

I jumped in at this point, "Oh I'm definitely an emotional crier. I'm just a biiiig bunch of emotions!"

Their predictions went off the rails at that point, and I had to reign them in so we could keep reading before time ran out.

Well, my teacher bags are packed, my car is packed, and soon I'm off to the ReStore in Mankato for a shift towards my sweat equity hours followed by a drive down to Fulda for the weekend!

Argumentative

Sigh. My kids were argumentative with me today. Not with each other (well, maybe a little with each other), just with me. 

They argued about doing art during read-aloud. They argued about when we were going to stop the chapter. They argued about the virtual field trip video we watched. They argued about doing the science lab after math. They argued about recess being shorter because the lab cut into it (not entirely my fault...math went long today, so we didn't have as much time as I'd thought). They argued about coming inside from recess when the kindergarteners came outside a minute or two early and kicked us off the playground. They argued about doing social studies. Sigh. Like I said. Argumentative.

The 7-8th graders weren't much better. They didn't argue; they just made fun of everything. Two groups of students presented their trip itineraries to the Middle East. Some had spelling errors or math/budget errors, and everyone not presenting made sure to point out the presenters' problems. Then we watched a virtual field trip session about how cartoons make sound effects, which they made fun of as well. Augh!!! 

Sigh. Overall a mentally draining day. Thankfully, tomorrow is Friday AND a half day. 

Rainin' Men (and Hail)

Yesterday after school was out, a guy installed a new copier at school. He was young, tall, and good-looking, so of course everyone thought I should ask him on a date. I did not. This morning, we discovered he'd left his ID behind. Then came the suggestions that I should be the one to return it to him... oh boy. 🙄

The 5-6th graders' chat with my marine friend went even better than yesterday's chat with the 7-8th graders. He'd sent me some videos and pictures ahead of time so I could screen share (that made things go much smoother), and my class had come up with a few questions we'd written on the board ahead of time. Turns out, even more questions came to my students on the fly so we didn't need the others! My kids are quite good at questioning. 

The only awkward moment came at the way end when I asked if they had any other last questions for him before we went to recess... Two sixth graders exchanged a look and said, "Should we do it?" Oh boy. My teacher senses tingled on high alert. I had an inkling what they wanted to ask and I felt my cheeks flush. Sometimes, masks are a good thing!

They giggled at each other and shyly bounced back and forth, "I don't know... maybe... yes... okay, you do it... I don't want to! You!" I gave them my best teacher look and said, "If there's any doubt if it's appropriate or not, you probably better not ask it." 

They looked at each other one more time, and the girl said, "[the boy student] has a question for you!" 

"What?! No, you ask it!"

"Fine, [the boy student] wants to know if we can cancel art today."

Cue a whiparound look of shock from the boy in question and myself (also a jolt of relief). Not what I'd expected. My marine friend was obviously confused as well.

The boy said, "What? Why did you ask that? You totally wasted the question!"

They looked like they were about to ask the real question, so I cut them off and sent the class outside for recess and ended the call with my marine friend. It was misty outside, so my students came back inside after a few minutes, saying they'd decided to stay outside until the four-square ball bounced in the mud. It had, so now they were back inside. It wasn't our turn in the gym, but the mist lifted after another few minutes, and we went out and played tag in the wagon-wheel circle painted in the center of the blacktop, far away from the mud.

As we played outside, we heard thunder rumbling in the clouds. It rained on and off for the rest of the afternoon, and at one point it even hailed pea-sized hail! It's warm enough everything melted and nothing was damaged as far as I could tell. 

I'm guessing you're wondering what the question was my students were too scared to ask about... Well, a while ago, a parent shared that according to her daughter, all the 5-6th graders think my marine friend and I are dating (we are not). I'm pretty sure that's what they were going to ask about! 😳

Tis the Season

My car has four-square ball marks in the dust on the sides and back. Spring is here! Hopefully it's here to stay, but word on the street says snow is in the forecast for next week. 

We were supposed to do a lab outside today, but it was too windy. It was too nice to go inside, so we did extra recess with the stipulation that we'd do our lab some other time this week, whenever I say, no arguing or wheeling/dealing... I tacked on that fine print because they've been so argumentative with me all week!!! Rain/snow is in the forecast for tomorrow; that might be a good time to do it if the gym is open. The lab involves throwing a tennis ball across a big space, not something we can just do in the classroom. But if the weather is poor, most classes will be inside, so that could be tricky...

My marine friend chatted with the 7-8th graders today. He was supposed to show us pictures from his time being stationed in Japan, but it turned into more of a question/answer session with a few pictures thrown in. He was video-chatting from his phone, so every time he wanted to show a new picture, he had to stop screen sharing and then re-screen share. My 5-6th graders are chatting with him tomorrow, and they had the idea he should send me the pictures/videos he wants to share and I can screen share and he can just talk. Great idea! He's already sent me a bunch of pictures.

The 7-8th graders wrote down a bunch of questions to ask prior to his video time. We wrote them on the board so everyone could see them and ask one if there was a lull. There were only a few strange questions! When my friend first came on screen, the 7-8th graders didn't know he could hear/see us. One of the 7th grade girls said very loudly, "Oh, he is not how I pictured him at all. He's waaaay less nerdy than I thought he'd be." Oops. I told her our mic was on and he could hear everything we were saying... Cue blushing plus a loud, "Sorry! I didn't know you could hear me!" She apologized again at the end of the call and he said, "It's okay, I've been called a lot worse."

One of the 7th grade boys wanted him to say something in his soldier voice. Marines don't do a lot of marching, so they don't have to yell or talk much, so C was a bit at a loss of what to say. The same 7th grader asked him to flex for us to show off his muscles. My marine friend said, "Well, you won't be able to see much; my uniform is long-sleeved." Still, he was a good sport and turned his phone to show his arms. He was right; we couldn't see much besides baggy uniform sleeve. We also learned that on Daylights Savings Day the marines switch from their long-sleeved winter uniforms to their short-sleeved summer uniforms. 

All in all, I'd say the talk was a success. I'm curious to see what the 5-6th graders come up with. They're generally pretty curious and have good questions!

Sunny, Summery Day

So beautiful out. The 7-8th graders went out for recess the same time my class did, but they played kickball while mine did four square. My class really liked watching them play. We did a lot of cheering while we played our game!

My kids were in an argumentative mood. They kept trying to make deals with me but I was not having it. Art was the source of contention. There's a project I've had planned for at least a month, but it keeps getting pushed off. No more! We started today. It looks complicated, but it's not as hard as it looks. Unfortunately, my kiddos are judging the project by its cover. 

They also wanted more read-aloud time, but I held firm today. In the plans was watching the MSU play via video link. It was probably my least favorite play from them so far, very geopolitical. Some parts were fine, bits about not littering or planting trees to help the environment, but there was a part about organic farming and chemicals, and some of their facts didn't share the whole picture... Bummer. 

On another note, it's supposed to be really nice out tomorrow! I'm feeling the itch to go kayaking, but I have a feeling the pond is still frozen. Sigh. I guess I'll have to wait. 

Sports Day

I pulled the ol' Croatia soccer jersey out of the closet for today's Sports Day. It's the only jersey I have; I got it a few years ago when my friend L and I were on vacation in Croatia during the World Cup. They were playing in the World Cup and placed second! We were able to watch two of their final games and bought jerseys from one of the sidewalk stands to better blend in (and show our support, of course). Such good memories. 

It was only a half day of school, which made the day go fast. Two homeschool girls tuned in for religion class. We did our last Junior Achievement video today. The kids were super excited to be done; they weren't fans of the new video/virtual format. We watched the video during lunch and they cheered when it was finished. 🙄

The rest of the day we spent pretty much doing read-aloud. They are totally sucked into this book. They would've had me read for three hours, except we had to take a spelling test so they had to settle for two. My voice held out pretty good for the morning. One of the 6th graders thought we could read for an hour, do our spelling tests, then read for another hour just to give my voice a rest if I needed a break. What a thoughtful kid!

Crazy Hair Day

Mr. E popped his head in my room this morning asking me a question, paused mid-sentence, did a double-take, and burst out laughing. I'm not really sure why... 😉

All day, people kept giving me weird looks... One kindergartener saw me in the hallway and muttered to himself, "That sure is some crazy hair..." The rest of his class thinks I'm the silliest teacher in the school. (I might be... none of the other teachers did crazy hair). Mr. E kept bringing people into my room to check out my hair. And every time he saw me, he laughed a gut-busting laugh. It was great.

My student's reactions were mostly nonplussed. The first of my kids to arrive said completely deadpanned, "Wow, where'd you come up with that plan?"

"Pinterest."

"Of course."

The next one saw me and shook his head, like he was thinking, 'of course you would Miss H.' The others laughed or smiled a bit, but the rest of the grades had better reactions when they saw me in the halls. 

Wearing a bottle on your head is a lot harder than it looks! It might even be more difficult than Tuesday's antlers. The bottle makes me so tall my head grazes the roof of my car. I kept bumping my head on my way to school.

Surprisingly, during the day it wasn't too bad. The hardest part was not having space to set my reading glasses on top of my head. That, or, my ponytail kept flipping in my face while I ate lunch. 

I took the bottle out after school and here's what my hair looked like after being trapped in a bottle all day... still crazy!

Career Day

Ms. Frizzle, the teacher from the Magic School Bus, is who I dressed up as today. I wore my skeleton shirt, dino bone necklace, and planet bracelet along with a little green lizard beanie baby (borrowed from Mrs. E) pinned to my shoulder. And my hair in a bun. Not too crazy for church tonight!

My kids played Apples to Apples for our fun game this afternoon. They wanted to play the Snake Oil game again, but I let the 7-8th graders borrow it. A surprising number of my kiddos hadn't played it before! We got quite a few rounds in and had a great time playing. 

We also finished War Stories and started The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise. I am so excited to read this new book. I listened to it this summer and loved it; the author's voice is so unique and the writing style is beautiful. It also talks about some hard stuff like loss of family members and dealing with grief, but in a good way. My kids are already making a ton of predictions. 

One boy who has been gone on vacation this whole week had asked us to record our read-aloud sessions. We've faithfully been doing that, except I almost forgot today... One of the 6th graders said, "Oh, we shouldn't record today. We should say we forgot, just to drive him crazy because he can't hear the end of the book." The end of War Stories was pretty dramatic! 

After we settled on which new book to start, my kids picked the next two we should read. They are so cute. They were justifying why they wanted to read Dead Man's Rapids next ('we need something a little lighter and funnier after reading the war book, before we read another historical one'), followed by All Four Stars ('because we've been putting it off for such a long time Miss H'), then maybe The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe ('but we should actually save that for the end of the year Miss H, because we've already read it, so then if we can't finish it before the end of school we'll already know what happens'). These kids are thinkers aren't they?! Man, I love them so much.

Book Character Day

I was the moose from If You Give a Moose a Muffin today. The other teachers were: if you give a mouse a cookie, a cat a cupcake, a dog a donut, and a pig a pancake. None of my students dressed up. A few 7-8th graders did. I didn't see any kids from other classrooms to know if they did or not.

Our special activity for the day was playing games. Mrs. L shared a game with us called Snake Oil. It's kind of like Apples to Apples, except there is one consumer (like a pro-wrestler, beach bum, fashion model, etc.) and the rest of the group uses cards to make a product that would fit that kind of consumer. So you could have products like: lightning hammer, juice cup, tax clock, or food puppet. Then the salesmen try to convince the consumer to buy their specific product. It was hilarious to hear what my students came up with! 

The weather was beautiful today. We played Wagon Wheel at recess, which involves a lot of running. I forgot my tennis shoes at home and played in my flats. My feet will probably be sore tomorrow. It was so nice, we all ended up without jackets on. 

At the end of recess, parents were driving in the parking lot, so my class migrated off the blacktop. They took a walk through the kickball field. Normally, not a bad idea. Today... very soggy. The ground is saturated with melting snow and splashed if they walked too fast. Oops. No one wore boots, so they ended up with very wet feet. Still, recess ended up being their high of the day!

PJ Day

National Lutheran Schools' Week kickoff day! We started our week with the ever popular pajama day. I have a Habitat meeting tonight, but my pajama pants are so comfy, I can't decide if I am going to change into jeans or not... We'll see. 

Our special activity of the day was playing an all-school Kahoot. It was really only 1-8 that played, but we all had fun. The Kahoot I had made didn't take too long, so afterwards we played a second one. That game was from the 5-8th graders' end of year party last year, so some of the questions were familiar to them. A lot were "whose desk is this? which classroom is this in?", just basic school stuff associated with our school. 

The 1st graders played on one device but the 2nd graders each got to have their own! They did really well! The 3-4th graders did the same, although, if they had their own device they got to play individually. 

My classroom is down one student. He and his brothers/their family are skiing in Colorado for the whole week. He was bummed to miss read-aloud, so he asked if we'd record read-aloud time this week so he can watch it later. Sure. Why not? It's easy enough to do. We're quickly approaching the climax of the book, and I have a feeling my kids are going to make me finish it tomorrow...